A number-crunching commuter is convinced the new Great Northern trains between Ely and London have fewer seats and less standing space.

Software engineer Andrew Booker, from Ely, has analysed the timetables, total number of seats, and measurements of Great Northern’s new fleet of trains linking the city to the capital, and claims the company has significantly reduced the amount of space available to customers.

His research shows that, in a two-hour window (7am to 9am) during peak times, the reduction in seating, combined with changes to the length of trains, is equivalent to losing more than one 12-carriage train between Ely and London.

Andrew, 38, said: “There are 68 square metres of standing area in standard class on an old Great Northern train, and only 61 square metres on a new train.”

But a spokesman for Great Northern said that the operator never claimed there would be more standing space on the new trains.

He said: "The new fleet of trains are the first on our route to give passengers much-needed air-conditioning, as well as state of the art on board information systems, accessible toilets and designated areas for wheelchair users and power points at every pair of seats. We will very soon be adding free on-board Wi-Fi.

"There are fewer seats in the peak but this is because the new trains are built to be safer for passengers with the seats positioned further away from the bulkhead ends, meeting updated crash-worthiness standards. The same trains have been introduced on C2C, Gatwick Express and Great Western and they all feature two-plus-two seating to reach the best possible compromise between capacity and comfort.

"But the same changes have created over 1,800 more seats in the off-peak thanks to longer eight-carriage trains and in 2018 we'll be introducing our new Thameslink service creating nearly 3,000 extra peak seats from Cambridge to London in the morning peak through extra services and longer trains. Off-peak, Cambridge will receive half as many trains as it does today - six trains an hour instead of four.

"The new Thameslink service will give our Cambridge customers direct services to St Pancras, Farringdon, City Thameslink, Blackfriars, London Bridge, East Croydon, Gatwick Airport and Brighton. The trip to Gatwick Airport will be about half an hour faster than it is today."

He also claimed that the amount of seats lost during peak time equated to six carriages' worth of seats.

Andrew was inspired to research the new trains after moving to Ely and using them to commute into Cambridge, where he works.

He said: “The trains are always busy at peak times, and in the morning, Ely is generally the cut-off point between getting a seat and having to stand on a southbound train.

“With the old trains, there were lots of spare seats when the train arrived in Ely, and typically most people got a seat, with a handful having to stand. People getting on at Waterbeach basically never got a seat at peak times.

“But as soon as the new trains arrived in May, it was obvious they had a smaller capacity.

“The only way to guarantee a seat at Ely was to do what all commuters hate and force yourself to the front of the queue to get on the train.

“I now find myself standing about half the time on my commute, which is not the end of the world, but it's a very definite and noticeable change."

The interior of the new carriages (Image: Great Northern)

Andrew experienced the same problem travelling to and from London at weekends.

"At times when the trains are busy, they are now absolutely rammed with people standing, whereas on the old trains it appeared there were fewer people without a seat."

Noticing the changes, Andrew decided to find out exactly how the new trains were different to the old.

He counted the number of seats on both an old model and new model train, and realised the "simple reduction of around 40 seats per carriage - the exact number varies depending on different sources - is actually equivalent to completely removing one four-carriage train between Cambridge and London per hour during off-peak".

Since publishing his findings online and posting them on Great Northern’s Twitter feed, people started contacting Andrew asking him for more information.

“The new trains’ vestibule areas may appear bigger, but the aisles are narrower, and my gut feeling was that these probably cancelled each other out and thus the overall standing space would be the same.

“I spent a while looking for any information about the standing capacity on the new trains, but other than Great Northern's insistence that there was more capacity, I couldn't find anything definite.

“That's when I decided to measure the trains.

“I felt pretty self-conscious doing it, and I was well aware people were giving me some very strange looks, but everybody was very ‘British’ about it and nobody actually said anything to me, or asked what I was doing.

“A friend later joked that I should have worn a hi-vis vest whilst doing it, because nobody would have batted an eyelid.”

Great Northern's new Siemens built Class 700 train

From measuring the train, Andrew was surprised to discover the floor area had reduced.